Namdia Desert Diamonds has suspended its CEO, chief operations officer and head of security following an armed heist that left one employee dead and saw nearly $20 million in diamonds stolen.
The move comes as the board of directors for Namdia, a sales and marketing company the Namibian government owns, passed a resolution to dismiss the executives temporarily while conducting an internal investigation into the sequence of events leading up to the crime, it said Tuesday.
Lelly Usiko, an executive at Namdia who has previously acted as interim CEO, will once again take up the role, filling in for CEO Alisa Amupolo. Meanwhile, chief operations officer Uahoroka Kauta and security manager Paulinus Sheyapo will step down. The company has not announced replacements for those two positions.
During the robbery, which took place at the end of last month, four intruders broke in and stole diamonds, killing Namdia’s senior protection officer, Francis “Gosh” Eiseb, as he tried to defend the site. Two of the suspects are in custody, while another died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The fourth has not been accounted for. One of the suspects in custody was a Namdia employee at the time of the robbery.
“We assure you the decision to suspend these team members was not taken lightly,” the board said. “However, the investigation and recovery process must now run its course. The Namdia board has decided to take this urgent precautionary step in the business’s best interests, as well as protect the integrity of both the executives and the investigation.”
The board took this step to prevent any questions about the “independence” of the inquiry, it stressed, adding that “the investigation and recovery process must be concluded as quickly as possible.”
The board maintained that at this stage in the investigation, it had no reason to suspect any employees, other than the one currently in custody, were involved in the robbery.”
Image: The Namdia premises in Namibia. (Namdia/Facebook)
